Prescribe Responsibly

Dr. Ari Frenkel

Prescribe Responsibly, the podcast where we explore the ways we can make smarter, safer, and more effective decisions about how we use antimicrobials and where we discuss innovative solutions in the infectious disease space. Follow the podcast for future episodes. Website: https://arkstone.ai

Episodes

  1. Apr 7

    When Antibiotics Miss the Mark: Granulomatous Mastitis, Missed Microbes, and the Cost of Guessing

    She visited five doctors. None found the infection. It took Tami Burdick — not her clinicians — to identify the organism causing her disease. In this episode of Prescribe Responsibly, Dr. Ari Frenkel sits down with Tami Burdick, patient advocate and author of Diagnosis Detective: Curing Granulomatous Mastitis, to explore what happens when standard lab methods fail, antibiotics become guesswork, and the patient is forced to become their own researcher. Tami's infection — granulomatous mastitis caused by Corynebacterium kroppenstedtii — was invisible to conventional Gram stains and cultures. What followed was a seven-month odyssey through misdiagnosis, ineffective treatment, two abscesses, and a wound vac. Along the way, she traced the source of her infection to contaminated well water in Connecticut — her "Erin Brockovich moment." In this conversation we cover: Why negative cultures don't mean no infection — and how clinicians are misled by false negativesThe 80% problem: most U.S. counties lack an infectious disease specialistHow trial-and-error prescribing costs patients months, tissue, and trustWhy patients are turning to AI before their doctors doWhat "super doctors" look like in the age of clinical decision supportWhether you're a clinician managing complex infections, a lab director evaluating diagnostic tools, or a patient navigating the system — this conversation will change how you think about responsible prescribing. 🔗 More from Prescribe Responsibly:Website: https://arkstone.ai Follow the podcast for future episodes. 📖 Tami's book: Diagnosis Detective: Curing Granulomatous Mastitis — available on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Diagnosis-Detective-Curing-Granulomatous-Mastitis-ebook/dp/B09DTBH9P9

    When Antibiotics Miss the Mark: Granulomatous Mastitis, Missed Microbes, and the Cost of Guessing

About

Prescribe Responsibly, the podcast where we explore the ways we can make smarter, safer, and more effective decisions about how we use antimicrobials and where we discuss innovative solutions in the infectious disease space. Follow the podcast for future episodes. Website: https://arkstone.ai